Study: Oregon Ranks 31st In Obesity

Oregon ranks 31st among the 50 states in a national study on obesity released Tuesday by the Trust for American Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 35 percent of American adults are obese. Oregon is below that average at about 26 percent.

But Albert Lang of the Trust for American Health says the new study predicts that if obesity rates continue on their current track, and if people don’t exercise more or change their diets, 49 percent of Oregonians will be obese by the year 2030.

“In Oregon the obesity rate in 1995 was just 15.6 percent. So you’ve seen it go up pretty dramatically in just 15 years or so,” Lang says. “And we’re expecting that to kind of continue.”

The study found that by 2030, Mississippi would have the highest obesity rate at about 65 percent of the population. Colorado would have the lowest at about 45 percent.